Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Is Left Right?

Once again the Anti-development, Anti-modernization and Anti-globalization forces of India is bringing our booming aviation industry to a standstill. The workers of India’s main airports, Mumbai, Delhi are striking. Reason? The Government of India has decided to privatize the Airports and thus bring the operational quality to a global standard. What are they opposing? The modernization? Privatization, may be? Partly yes. But the the objective of the latest in a string of strikes, is the fear that there will be job-cuts. This time instead of giving in, the UPA Government has decided to go ahead with it. Congrats for showing some spunk. But how long it can hold on against a crucial partner? It is to be seen and one would be surprised if there is no roll-back. At least some concessions for these warring employees. This is the curse of coalition politics and the Congress is paying a heavy price for depending on what is ideologically their enemy. So far the congress has humiliated itself by retreating from its promises many a times. And this would continue until congress can stand on its own leg. But are these Leftist parties serious about their strike? The other day one of the leaders of the Left, Mr. Prakash Karat, assured the media that they won’t withdraw the support to the government. At least not now. The next day, another leader, Mr. Seetharam Yechury, contradicted this statement by threatening the government of dire consequences. So who is speaking for the left? There is confusion among them too. Like, how long they could go and what would be the next step if their demands are not met. They slowly started to understand that, threatening every now and then wouldn’t go a long way in Indian politics. And worse, backing of from the current revolt will do more damage to their image. But the flip-flops of left parties are not new. They have done it in the past and wouldn’t hesitate to do it again.An interesting turn of this rather routine stuff is that these strikes are, against the law. According to a 1962 judgment passed by the Supreme Court, it is not a fundamental right to strike. It said, that no one, including political parties, can not claim a right to paralyze the industry or public life. It is the violation of fundamental rights. So who dare to initiate action against these?The coming days will unfold more dramas and flip-flops. What could have been a wonderful opportunity for the left to demonstrate that they are not anti-development has now been wasted. They must be ruing this fact and now stuck in no man’s land. It require a lot of political maneuvering and a thick skin to escape from this grave they dug themselves. If a situation like that of Tamilnadu, where Jayalalita mass-terminated around 120000 striking employees back in 2003 and the SC upheld it, arises then the only losing parties will be the employees.